March 11, 2019

Russian bank designated for support to Venezuelan government

The Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of the Treasury has designated Evrofinance Mosnarbank for materially assisting, sponsoring or providing financial, material or technical support for Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PdVSA), a Venezuelan state-owned oil company designated by the US Treasury in January 2019.  Evrofinance was founded as a bi-national Russian-Venezuelan bank to fund joint oil and infrastructure projects, and the Venezuelan government bought a 49% stake in the bank in 2011, through the Fondo de Desarrollo Nacional Fonden SA.  The other large shareholders in the bank are VTB Bank and Gazprombank, both of them sanctioned Russian entities since 2014.  As a result of today’s designation pursuant to Executive Order 13850, all property and interests in the property of Evrofinance in the US are blocked. 

US Treasury press release